Shingle mixing machine



Nov. 8, 1932. A. E. F. MOONE SHINGLE MIXING MACHINE I Filed April 1, 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet l Nov. 8, 1932. A. E. F. MOONE SHINGLE MIXING MACHINE Filed April 1, 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 15113772679 'azrizfivloom Nov. 8, 1932.

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Patented Nov. 8, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT: OFFICE. x

ALBERT E. r. Moons. OF'CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR 1 0 THE LEHON COMPANY, A

' CORPORATION or ILLINOIS SHINGLEMIXING MACHINE Application filed April 1,

This invention relates to improvements in shingle mlxing machlnes.

It is often desired to make patterns upon color or surface or to change the shape of the shingles occasionally to prevent any regularity of pattern in the color or design.

This result may be achieved automatically as far as the laying of the shingles is concerned by placing the different shingles in the bundle or bale in such order that the desired'effect is produced when the shingles are laid on the roof in the order in which they are stacked in the bale. But under present methods, the assembly of such bales requires a great amount of handling at the'factory and the mixed bales are necessarily much more costly than those of a uniform color or shape.

It is my purpose in this invention to provide a machine which will place the shingles f vidual shingles out from separate uniform in the bundle or bale in any desiredorder; which is capable of mixing shingles of similar characteristics, but of different color, surface, or shape; and which will stack such variform or variegatedshingles.

Although the machine I propose bulky,

I find it convenient to design it in a portable form for it then may be pulled from stack to stack at the warehouse or mixing floor, and thus obviates the necessity of moving shingles about the plant.

Another object of the invention is to produce a machine in which the individual stacks of shingles are temporarily supported upon rigid nonmoving tables, for the stacks of shingles are very heavy and require an extremely rugged support. v

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings, in which I I Fig. 1 is a plan view of the machine;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation;

Fig. 8 is a vertical, longitudinal section of that part of the machine indicated by the lines 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 42 is a vertical, transverse, partial sec' tion on the line 4-.4 of Fig. 2;

1931. Serial No. 526,938;

Figs 5 is a transverse section through the machine on the line 55 of Fig. 2;

Fig. dis a vertical, longitudinal section through a portion of the machine illustrating in detail the ejecting mechanism and supporting table;

Fig. 7 is a vertical, longitudinal section through a portion of the machine illustrating in detail the ejector mechanism and stop gate; and i I i 'Fig. '8 illustrates a strip shingle which is one unit of the stacks shown in the various figures.

But these specific illustrations and the correspondingly specific description in the specification are for the purpose of disclosure only and arenot to be taken as limiting the scope of the device except as defined by the appended claims.

Briefly, the machine comprises five organizations: I

1. Apparatus and means for forcing indistacks. t

Z'Apparatus and means for determining what, how many, and when the shingles shall be forced out from the separate stacks.

3. Apparatus for carrying the shingles away after their delivery from-the individual stacks and for maintaining the sequence of such delivery. i v I l. Apparatus for stacking the shingles in bundles in the sequence in which they were delivered to the carrier.

5. Apparatus to prevent the somewhat sticky asphalt shingles from sticking or j amming. t

Each of these functions performed by the five organizations bears a timed and sequential relation to the others. I

The machine may handle sheet material of any description, and accordingly-the word shingle will be used throughout this spec- I ification to indicate sheet material generically, and itis not confined to the conventional roofing element of the name.

From the figures, it will be seen that the machine is mounted upon two longitudinal sills 10, 10, which in turn are supported by the casters 11, 11 andthat the sills bear a rectangular steel frame 12, 12 which forms ageneral support or table for much of the apparatus.

In the general assembly drawings but two units are shown. The others are substantial duplicates of these and any number may be.

inserted between the two which are illustrated.

In the particular machine here involved, there are five mixing units. The outrigger 13 fastened to the sills 10 and the frame 12 supports several pillow blocks 14, 14 which carry the longitudinal main drive shaft 15. Power is delivered to this shaft from the mo* tor M through the drive chain 16 to the sprocket 17. The pillow blocks 18, 19 carried by the side rails of the frame 12 sup port a number of transverse shafts 21, which bear sprockets 22, 22, etc., placed at intervals along their length. The outer end of the shaft carries a bevel gear 20 which meshes with the bevel pinion 20a which is keyed to the shaft 15, A companion idle shaft 23 similarly mounted in pillow blocks 24 and 25 also bears spro'ckets26 which are connected to the driving sprockets on the shaft 21 by the chains 27, 27.

At two points exactly halving the length of the chain are the ejector fingers 28, 28 (Figs. 3, 6 and 7). These, as indicated in Fig. 3, are adapted to engage the lowermost shingles which are stacked upon the slotted table 29. This table may be conveniently made up from a plurality of castings 31 which are seated upon the cross members 32 of the frame 12. The chains 27 are in continuous movement as long as the apparatus is in operation, and whenever the ejector fingers 28 engage a shingle, it is thrust forward out of the stack. This is the apparatus of the first organization.

The apparatus for determining what, how many, and when the shingles shall be forced out from the stack is as follows: The sills 10 bear the pillow blocks 33, 33, which support the transverse shaft 34. This carries near its end the large sprocket 35 and the drum 36. The second cross shaft 37, suitably mounted in the bearings 38, 38 forms a countershaft and carries the sprocket 39 at its outer end. Behind this lies the smaller sprocket 41 which is connected to the sprocket through one-fifth of a revolution while the chain 27 is traversing half of its length.

The cross members 32, 32 of the frame 12 support angles 45, 45, which have a long upstanding web to form a guide for the chain booster and stop gate frame assembly. This comprises a substantially rectangular frame which is free to move vertically but held against longitudinal displacement by the engagement of its transverse bars 47, 47 with the guides 45. Under each chain 27 is a rigid cross member 48 which extends between the transverse bars 47, 47. Two transverse shafts 49 and 51 suitably supported on the frame 12 carry a plurality of hell cranks 52 and are connected by the links 53 and the frame links 54 in such a manner that the oscillation of the live shaft 49 will cause the frame 46 to be raised and lowered.

Accordingly, the chain 27 and with it the ejector blocks 28 will be placed in a vertical position which is determined by the angular position of the shaft 49. At the end of the shaft, a lever arm 55 is pinned. This terminates in a roller 56 which engages the face of the drum 36. \Vhen the shaft 49 is turned in a clockwise direction, the frame 46 rises, and conversely it falls when allowed to do so by the contour of the cam blocks 57, 58 which are applied to the surface of the drum 36.

In order that the stack of shingles may be retained on its supporting table while permitting the removal of one or more of the shingles at the bottom of the stack, there is provided a stop gate assembly 59. This assembly comprises a pair of upright side rails 62, 62, which are secured at their lower ends to the bars 47 (Fig. 7), top and bottom. cross rails 63 and 101 (Fig. 5), braces 67 extending from the upper ends of the uprights 62 to the bar 47 adjacent the rear end of the table, and a plurality of vertically hinged slats 61 depending from the bar 63 and hearing against the bar 101. The slats 61 may be vertically adjusted by means of clamping devices 64, securing them to the bar 63 to adapt the machine for use in connection with shingles differing in thickness.

I consider it an important feature of this invention that the stop gate rises with each movement of the frame and that it should be a unit therewith. The effect of this, since the shingles are jammed tightly against the gate, is to tend to lift the whole stack and to drop the lowermost shingles which are not engaged by the slats 61. The purpose of the vertical adjustment of the slats is to allow shingles of various thicknesses to be handled by the machine.

The cam block 58 is of such a height that the ejector and gate will be raised enough to force three shingles out'from the bottom of the stack. The cam block 57 will allow one shingle to be forced out from the bottom of the stack. hen the roller 56 contacts with the surface of the drum 36, the ejector will be so far dropped that no shingles will be engaged. A cam block of another thickness (not shown) might be added to allow two shingles to be forced out. Therefore, as the drum 36 revolves, bearing with it the cam faces which may be adjusted and applied in any predetermined manner, the ejector and stop gate are constantly regulated in position and a predetermined number of shingles will be dropped from the device.

The apparatus for carrying the shingles away after they have been dropped from the individual stacks is as follows: At the ends of the machine, the transverse shafts 66 and 67 are mounted in appropriate supports upon the shafts, as best shown in Fig. 1, are mounted a number of sprockets 68 which are connected by the conveyor chains 69, 69. The live shaft 67 receives its drive through the sprocket 71 carried on the shaft 37 and through the chain 72 to the sprocket 73 pinned to the shaft 67. Under each chain, as shown in Fig. 5, is a longitudinal strip or bar of hardwood 74. The conveyor receives the shingles which are dropped by the ejecting mechanism and bears them forward continuously until they bump up against the short normally vertical portions 75 of the pick-up arms 91.

The apparatus for stacking the shingles in bundles in the sequence in which they were delivered to the carrier is as follows The further end of the shaft 37 bears a sprocket 76 which drives a heart shaped cam 77 through the sprocket 7 8 and the chain 79. An arm 81 is pivoted at 82 upon the sill 10 and carries a roller 83 affixed to it in such a way that the roller occupies the slot 84: in the face of the cam 77 and causes the arm 81 to oscillate. A rack 85 is pivoted to the arm at 86 and is held in engagement with the gear 87 by the idler roll 88. In consequence, the shaft 89 to which the gearr87 is pinned, turns first in one direction and then the other through 180. Pick-up arms 91, 91 lie normally just, beneath the horizontal positionof the conveyor chain and when the shingles reach the end of their travel, the timed relation of the parts is such that the shaft 89 revolves, raises the arms,

and drops the shingles upon the stacking.

bench, which, for convenience, I make a roller conveyor 92. The arms now sweep back and are ready to receive and stop the next group of shingles before any reach the end of the carrier, or can interfere with the downward sweep of the arms.

The apparatus for preventing the shingles from sticking together and jamming is as follows: In addition to the lifting effect performed by the stop gate 61, it is necessary to give the stacks a sharp olt before the shingles are to be released. This is accomplished by means of the projection 93 on the face of the heart cam 77. The crank 94 bears a roller 95 at its end which, when engaged by the pro jection 93, causes the upper arm of the crank to be driven rapidly to the right.

The arm is connected to the hammer frame 96 which comprises the side bars 97, 97 and the cross rods 98, 98. On each cross rod and placed directly infront of each slat 61 is a hammer 99. Across bar 101 stretches between the side members 62, 62 of the stop frame. Each ofthe slats'61 is hinged at 102 and carries a threaded pin 103 which projects through the cross bar. A spring 104 set'over the pinis compressed by the nut 105. VVhenever the crank 94: is reciprocated, the hammers are driven against the slats 61 which give slightly" and are instantly restored by the pull of the springs 104. The whole hammer frame is restored by the springs 106, 106. Before each shingle is-to be removed, the whole stack has received a severe jolt and is so loosened that the lowermost shingles may ent from those in any other. When the motor is started, allthe parts operate together and in timed relation with each other. There is no intermittent operation in the device. The roller 56 controlling the ejector and gate elevating mechanism successively engages the blocks upon'the face of the drum 36 and in consequence, the chains 27 are raised andlowered together with the stop gate assembly.

Thechainis driven from the rear to. the

forward sprocket in the time that it takes the roller 56 to cross the face of one of the blocks. The ejector blocks 28, 28, therefore,

engage a continuously adjusted number of shingles on the bottom of the pile and push this predetermined numberv of shingles out beyond the gate. The shingles then fall upon the conveyor chains beneath and are carried tothe-forward end of the machine. Progress of the conveyor is set at a rate which will allow the shingles to be taken off from it, deposited on the bundle and the lifting arms returned to the liftingposition before the next group of shingles comes forward to such a point that they will interfere with the arms. The jolt given to each stack by the hammer frame is received just before the ejector 28 engages the shingles.

With five. such .units as have been described, it is possible to build up bundles of shingles with more than two hundred different sequences before the identical pattern repeats itself, and of course, by changing the size of the drums 36 and their speed With respect to the progress of the ejector chains, many more combinations could be secured. The present arrangement, however, is amply sufiicient to prevent any appearance of regular pattern from occurring in roofs of ordinary size.

What I claim, therefore, is:

1. In a shingle mixing machine, a plurality of tables, a stop gate and an ejector cooperating with each table to force sheets of material stacked thereon out and under the stop gate, means for independently raising and lowering the ejector and the stop gate associated With the several tables to predetermined heights in a predetermined sequence,

and means for carrying the shingles away after they have been forced out from under the gate.

2; In a machine of the class described, a plurality of slotted tables supporting stacks of shingles, a plurality of fingers adapted to engage a determinable number of shingles in said stacks, means for causing the fingers to travel transversely across the stack thereby displacing the lowermost shingles, adjustable stop means to prevent the Whole stack from being displaced, and means determiningthe vertical position'of the ejecting fingers and the stop.

3. In a shingle mixing device, a plurality of tables, an ejecting assembly consisting of a stop gate and an ejector associated With each table, the vertical position of each such assembly in the device being separately controlled by an individual cam and cooperating parts, and means provided for changing the contour of the cam whereby the vertical position of the assembly With respect to the angular position of the cam may be controlled.

4-. A method of assorting and stacking shingles Which consists in assembling shingles of different characteristics in stacks, each characteristic in a separate stack loosening the shingles in each stack, then moving shingles from the bottom of each stack in a predetermined order, and finally assembling the shingles in stacks in the order in Which they are removed from the original stacks.

5. A method of assorting and stacking shingles which consists in collecting shingles of like characteristics in stacks, agitating the shingles in each stack for loosening the same, and then removing shingles from a plurality of stacks in a predetermined order and assembling them in stacks according to a predetermined scheme.

6. In a shingle mixing machine, in combination, a plurality of shingle stack supporting tables, a shingle ejecting and retaining gate associated With each table, and means for independently vertically adjusting the ejecting means and retaining gate to determine the member of shingles ejected at each operation.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

ALBERT E. F. MOONE. 

